国际化动因、制度环境与区位选择:后发企业视角

Internationalization Motivation,Institutional Environment,and Location Choice:A Latecomer Enterprise Perspective

主流的对外直接投资理论在解释中国企业国际化行为方面存在一定局限。本文从后发企业视角,系统分析了中国企业国际化动因与区位选择的内在机制,并考察了东道国制度环境的调节作用。本文选取2003—2012年10年间中国对101个国家(地区)的直接投资及相关数据进行实证检验,发现我国企业对外直接投资具有显著的市场寻求、自然资源寻求和效率寻求动因,但战略资产寻求动因表现不显著;东道国制度环境对市场寻求型对外直接投资有积极的促进作用,而对效率寻求型对外直接投资有反向调节作用。这些发现不仅可以增进人们对后发企业国际化行为的理解,而且可以为正在展开的中国企业国际化实践提供决策参考。

The explosion of China＇s outward FDI posits a challenge not only to the world investment pattern,but also to the existing theory of FDI.The mainstream FDI theory has its origin in the research of western transnational corporations.It believes that a monopoly position is the prerequisite of an enterprise＇s internationalization,as only a firm in a monopoly position is capable of overcoming the additional costs and risks of overseas operations to secure enough returns from their investments.The eclectic paradigm views a firm＇s internationalization as a process of utilizing its own advantages（internalization） and the host country＇s location advantages.This theory,while great at explaining the internationalization drivers of western transnational corporations,shows obvious limitations in explaining the internationalization behaviors of latecomer Chinese firms.The Chinese firms differ from western transnational corporations in that they began their internationalization as latecomer enterprises.Lacking the enormous ownership advantages,a latecomer＇s internationalization behaviors cannot be based only on their existing advantages,but rather must find a balance between exploiting the existing advantages and further strengthening their advantages.Consequently,in their location choice,they must both enter developing countries where their advantages can manifest,and enter developed countries where they can acquire strategic assets including technologies and brands to improve their advantages.Such motives make their internationalization processes more complicated,and balancing their often contradictory goals more difficult.Furthermore,their processes display an institutional characteristic of developing countries and/or transitional economies- the prevalence of governmental intervention,which both affects their internationalization drivers and entry modes,and can potentially cause alarm or unease in the host country,thus hindering their goals.Since the mainstream FDI theory cannot provide satisfactory explanations to such drivers peculiar to latecomers,it is necessary to study and understand them.From a latecomer enterprise perspective,this paper provides a systematic analysis of Chinese enterprises＇ internalization motivations and internal mechanisms of location choice,and examined the moderating effects of the host country＇ institutional environments.This paper selects data from direct investments by Chinese enterprises to 101 countries and regions during the 2003—2012 decade for an empirical test,and find that;the Chinese enterprises＇ FDI exhibit significant market-seeking,natural resource-seeking and efficiency-seeking motivations,but no significant strategic resource-seeking motivations;the institutional environments of host countries have a positive effect on market-seeking FDI,but a negative effect on efficiency-seeking FDI.These findings may improve our understandings of latecomer enterprises＇ internationalization behaviors.This study shows that the latecomer enterprises can successfully conduct market-seeking,natural resource-seeking and efficiency-seeking FDIs.This means that the prerequisites of the mainstream transnational corporation theory need to be amended.This study used institutional environments as its moderating variable,in order to examine its moderating effects on the four types of drivers,which obtained valuable findings,and may have provided a way to expand on the current framework of analysis.Many researchers believe that the efficiency-seeking driver is not prevalent in Chinese firms＇ FDIs,but this study indicates that as the wage level in China goes up,the labor-intensive firms of China has come to possess strong efficiency-seeking FDI drivers,which is a change worthy of researchers＇ attention.